Ralph Nicoletti, who was 18 during the November attacks, apologized to his victims and family prior to his sentencing in Brooklyn Federal Court. The sentence was part of a deal -- Nicoletti pleaded guilty in February to three felony counts of racially-motivated interference with voting rights.

Nicoletti and three other North Shore men assaulted three victims in Stapleton and Port Richmond in retaliation for Barack Obama's Nov. 4 election victory as the nation's first black president, prosecutors alleged. One victim, Alie Kamara, a Liberian immigrant who was then 17, was beaten with a metal pipe.

They mistook another victim, Ronald Forte, a white man, for black, because he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt.

"I'd like to apologize for what I did that night to the victims," Nicoletti told the court. "I can never take back what I did. I must be punished for what I did. I'm willing to accept that."

Robert P. LaRusso, Nicoletti's attorney, asked for a lighter sentence, telling Judge Carol B. Amon the attack was not racially motivated and the result of excessive drinking.

"This was not a planned, sophisticated operation," LaRusso said. "This was a crime of opportunity, unfortunately fueled by alcohol."

Judge Amon rejected his request.

"The crimes were perpetrated by pure hate that was born out of ignorance," she said.